(Two thumbs way up for “Vintage Getz” DVD (Warner Music Vision, recorded in 1983 at the Robert Mondavi Winery, Napa Valley)
…………………………………………………………..
Who could ever forget “Ipanema”
and the wispy, silky sounds
accompanying Astrud
on her husband’s song?
Clearly classic, like forever.
You played both sweet and sad
opening up the melancholy
aloneness of our hearts
deep within.
Decades later,
posthumously, no less,
you sprang free
with Barron’s rich piano
live in Copenhagen
dancing forever
beyond your cancer.
“Night and Day”,
“People Time”–
How you guys cooked!
A wonder and miracle of two.
Later I watched you, magically
play one summer’s night
in a California vineyard
before an appreciative throng,
unlike any dive you gigged
in your heroin free-fall daze,
fixes feeding your so-eloquent pain.
Ah, the tunes and greats you knew,
or had known and internalized
like no other jazzer since.
“Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most”,
“Lush Life”, “Blood Count”.
Billy Strayhorn.
Stan, you remain The Mellow Man
affecting the quality
of our inner jazz lives
though your ashes sleep deep
off Marina del Rey.